JRP report expected late next year

The Joint Review Panel for the Enbridge Northern Gateway project has announced that it expects to issue its report and findings on the proposed pipeline by December 2013. The panel has also finalized the scheduled for the remaining oral hearings. Community hearings will continue in various BC and Alberta locations until August. Hearings in Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna will be held in January and February 2013. The questioning phase of the final hearings will start on Sept. 4, and the panel said it expects this phase to be completed by December of this year. The final argument will take place in March and April 2013. The project involves the construction of two pipelines running from Alberta to Kitimat and the construction and operation of a marine terminal in Kitimat. The pipelines will carry bitumen from the Alberta tar sands to the coast, and condensate in the other direction. Condensate is a thinning agent that has to be added to the bitumen because it is too thick to flow through a pipeline.